Your First Concerts & Other Influences

[Haji]

My brother saw Hendrix and I had no idea. Wow. You can never tell with those shifty drummer types.

First arena show was Huey Lewis and the News on the Sports tour. I'd seen lots of local bands but never been to an arena show before that, but there have been a ton of 'em since. Oddly enough, now that I'm near Music City, I haven't seen a show in years. Making plans to fix that now.

 

[timber22]

I wish I had a chance to see Jimi or Janis.

My first concert was the J.Geils Band and Foghat. There was another opening band but I can't remember who it was. I'm thinking maybe 1972. Second one was Deep Purple and Billy Preston. I went to so many shows in my teenage years that I don't remember a lot of them (hmmm... wonder why?) and I remember the $5 ticket prices. I didn't keep any memorabilia - ticket stubs, posters, etc. - wish I did.

 

[TBird1958]

My first show was Alice Cooper in '73, Billion Dollar Babies tour..... I credit Alice for helping me turn out just the way I did
A couple months after that I saw Zepplin, they were a huge, sloppy disappointment. The first time I saw Rush they opened for KISS in '75.

 

[xUptheIronsx]

My first show was Alice Cooper in '73, Billion Dollar Babies tour..... I credit Alice for helping me turn out just the way I did
A couple months after that I saw Zepplin, they were a huge, sloppy disappointment. The first time I saw Rush they opened for KISS in '75.

wow...very jealous. That would have been one of their first tours. Classic!

 

[FFTT]

Imagine just the visual for a 16 year old standing back stage at the Roller Rink with Coop on one side of you and Edgar Winter on the other side just yacking away about stuff to do around the area.

Next day hung out with Coop and the band for several hours at their hotel.
My girlfriend ended up wearing his stage outfit, full makeup the works just for kicks.
It was both funny and embarrassing 'cause I was just trying to be normal around them.

I have a Polaroid buried downstairs somewhere of Coop at the soda machine at NOVA cafeteria after the show.
That show was nuts because he stabbed a down pillow and shook it out in front of a stage fan, so everyone was choking on feathers

 

[TBird1958]

wow...very jealous. That would have been one of their first tours. Classic!

I looked it up, it was 5/25/1975 at the Paramont here in Seattle, "Fly by Night" tour. They came back in March of '76 again at the Paramont for 2112, I think with Blue Oyster Cult. For me, Geddy isn't Geddy without a Black Rick 4001!

 

[noahw1]

KISS at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, Nov. 25, 1979. Dynasty Tour.

 

[Lenwood Dinard]

My first concert was Triumph in the very early 80's. I was 13 or 14 and I don't remember much except how embarrassed I was when mom dropped my buddy and I off in the station wagon. Couple years later I was lucky enough to score tickets from the radio station for The Who in the Houston Astrodome. Great lineup. Oingo Boingo, Billy Squire then The Who. Oingo Boingo gave an awesome bass solo. And of course, the who did not play Athena. Of course I now know why they didn't, but I was sure heartbroken back then!

 

[johnpbass]

Very cool that you mentioned the Yes/Tull tour FFTT. I saw Yes and Jethro Tull on that tour at the Wildwood Convention Hall of all places. Being from Philly, I spent a lot of time at the New Jersey shore. Wildwood had opened a brand spankin' new Convention Hall on the boardwalk and they were booking top bands. My family was down there for the summer and my brother and I, on a whim, walked up to the ticket window figuring that show had to be sold out. Well it wasn't! Awesome show!!!
Three weeks later, we saw Emerson, Lake, an Palmer there, and also Steppenwolf right after that!
Oh almost forgot, my first concert was Grand Funk Railroad here at the old Spectrum in Philly. My ears hurt for days after that one but I didn't care at all!

 

[FFTT]

I saw ELP at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, might have been same tour.

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Growing up as a poor little kid in Southern Louisiana, I didn't have a lot of opportunity to see big name acts. We were ecstatic when a rock cover band would drive up from New Orleans to play a local dance. We thought they were rock gods. They had big amps and played really loud. I remember watching Don Kirshner's Rock Concert on the television in the early 70s.

When the family moved to Bakersfield and I saved my dish washing money, I was able to see groups like Three Dog Night and Rare Earth in concert at the Civic Auditorium in the mid-70s. In the late 70s I joined the Air Force and played in the Air Force band at March AFB near Riverside. During the late 70s and early 80s a bunch of buddies and I used to go the the Baked Potato and see Larry Carlton, Abraham Laboriel, and others play. We also went to The Greek Theater to see Stanley Clarke. As much as I admired Jaco I never got the chance to see him.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

First concert: Aerosmith, 1976. They were loaded and, as a result, terrible. I didn't care. I've had a soft spot for them since.
First band influences: Yes / The Who / Pink floyd (yeah, I'm a child of the '70s)
First bassist I really noticed: Chris Squire
First basist who really made me go home and pracitce: Victor Wooten

 

[ERMAL]

First concert: Elvis Presley- April 21, 1976, at Kemper Arena in Kansas City MO.
Other 'memorable' ones (for me anyway) The Beach Boys (w/Randy Miesner opening) in 1980. Ozzy w/Mötley Crüe, AC/DC w/Fastway both in '83.
Duran Duran, which I cut out early due to the pubescent girls drowning out the band and REM, who IMHO were really disappointing live.
These days, I will admit I'm too 'cheap' too pay current concert ticket prices.

 

[xUptheIronsx]

First concert: Elvis Presley- April 21, 1976, at Kemper Arena in Kansas City MO.
Other 'memorable' ones (for me anyway) The Beach Boys (w/Randy Miesner opening) in 1980. Ozzy w/Mötley Crüe, AC/DC w/Fastway both in '83.
Duran Duran, which I cut out early due to the pubescent girls drowning out the band and REM, who IMHO were really disappointing live.
These days, I will admit I'm too 'cheap' too pay current concert ticket prices.

I hear ya....the only band I will pay more than $30 to see is Rush. IT is house shows and small venue shows for me. that is usually where the better music is anyways

 

[Reo]

Being a bit younger, my first concert can't compete with most of these. I saw White Zombie in '96 as a 13 year old and the "show" aspect of the concert was pretty great; pyrotechnics, etc. Later that year I saw Rage Against the Machine for $10 which was surprisingly the face value of the ticket due to the location being a county fairgrounds well outside of Salt Lake City. I still kick myself for not going again when they came back when I was 17. That's what I get for literally telling my friend, "I'll see them next time they come through"...and then they broke up.

I wish there were still chances to see fairly big bands in smaller venues. My hometown here in Utah has an amusement park that used to host plenty of big name acts; The Doors, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys (who reference the park by name, Lagoon, in their song about SLC), etc. My dad worked there as a teen and since he was very into playing guitar he would chat with the roadies and help them set up before the shows...or so he says

 

[Kmonk]

My earliest influences were the songs from the 1950s and 60s. The first song I remember hearing was "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles. My mother had me in 1960 when she was 18 so she was very into the popular music of the 60s. She listened to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Petula Clarke, and especially anything Motown, Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Four Tops, etc. In the 70s she listened to Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Queen and other popular bands. My parents divorced when I was 8 and my father's side of the family always listened to country so I was exposed to Hank Williams, Conway Twitty, Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn, etc.

My first concert was Aerosmith before they were famous around 1972. They were playing in a park in Fall River, Massachusetts. My first "real" concert was KISS at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI February 2, 1978. The opening act was a band called Rockets. I paid $7.50 for a ticket in the third row, center stage. On New Year's Eve 1983, my band played a show in Rhode Island to about 500 people. The cost to see us was $8.00. Aerosmith was playing about 50 miles away at the Centrum in Worcester, Mass. The price to see them was $11.50 and $13.50.

My son's first concert was KISS, Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. He has loved classic rock ever since.

My wife's taste in music is different than mine so every year we take turns picking a concert to go to. One year she picks one and the following year I pick one and so on. Over the years we have seen:
KISS (10 Times), The Rockets, Aerosmith (6 Times), Golden Earring, J. Geils Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Cheap Trick, Queen, (1982), Billy Squier, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Black Sabbath, Quiet Riot, Beach Boys, Toy Caldwell, Mark Farner, Lo Cash Cowboys, Jason Aldean, Pat Benetar, REO Speedwagon, Ted Nugent, Poison, ZO2, Bare Naked Ladies, Josh Groban, Sarah McLachlan, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, Butterfly Boucher, Dido, Gavin DeGraw, Train, Staind, Rick Derringer, Blue Oyster Cult, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, Paul Shortino, Straight No Chaser, Naturally 7, Tori Amos, Vertical Horizon, Grass Roots, The Association, Mark Lindsey (Paul Revere and the Raiders), The Buckinghams, The Turtles, Jack Bruce (2 Times), Todd Rundgren ,Christopher Cross (2 Times) ,Alan Parsons, Duran Duran, Michelle Branch, Jason Mraz, Pink, Avril Lavigne, John Mayer, David Gray, Def Leppard, Guster, Van Halen, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Marcus Miller, The Envy ,Econoline Crush, Joe Perry Project, Beatlemania, Rain (Beatles Tribute), New England, Skid Row, Saliva, Paul McCartney.

 

[Michedelic]

My early concert experiences mirrored my quickly evolving tastes in music, and pop culture in general. My first show was Paul Revere and the Raiders on one of the last of the Dick Clark package tours, early '68. I had been a fan of the '66-'67 hot streak with their killer singles, but obviously the times they were a-changin', it was like saying goodbye to the earlier post-British invasion mod/go-go years that I was just a little too young to check out. Bryan Hyland was on the bill, as well as an all-girl band called The Chips. The next experience was a summer teen fair; I encountered my first "hippie" band playing something resembling the blues, the Mystic Number National Bank, a local(Kansas City) band that actually got an album out on a somewhat major label(ABC/Probe). Shortly after that I saw Eric Burdon and the Animals on what was their last tour, promoting "Love Is", with Andy Summers in the band(not that I would have known who HE was at the time). An unusual band call Sweetwater opened up. Years later I had the opportunity to meet the singer, Nancy Nevins, AND later Eric. Just months after, in early November, came Hendrix with Cat Mother as openers. Jimi was kinda phoning it in that night, just another gig in the sticks on an endless tour, I suppose. In early '69 I saw Steppenwolf, great show, Zeppelin came through, I was ill so I missed it, but apparently I didn't miss much; friends who went told me the band were all drunk, and Bonham puked all over his kit. That next summer Iron Butterfly at another Teen Fair, on the crest of their In-Gadda/Ball wave, they were soooo loud; I still suffer damage in my right ear to this day.

 

[DaveDeVille]

first concert was Jefferson Airplane , back in 1967 , at the ripe old age of 12 .
don't really remember much except the funny smell of smoke , but Grace Slick's voice and the light show were awesome !!

i saw these bands in the late 68 , 69 and the early '70's , but my memory is still kind of foggy ...
ZZ Top , Humble Pie , James Gang , Robin Trower , Montrose , Rush , Leon Russell , Bad Company ,
Wishbone Ash , Grand Funk , Led Zepplin , Frank Zappa { watched a friend perform with Zappa that night ...} ,
Ten Years After , Foghat , Wet Willie , REO SpeedWagon , Thin Lizzy , Ted Nugent Amboy Dukes ...

 

[Hues]

First concert: KISS Alive 2 tour.1977, I was 15.

One of the two friends I was going with insisted we get there as early as possible. A dad drove us an hour to Kansas City and dropped us off at Kemper Arena about noon.It was Nov. and fairly cold so we walked around the entire thing a couple of times.
We get to the load-in bay. After a few minutes, a guy comes out and asks us if we want to make some money setting up chairs on the floor. Of course we do. We go in, sign some work forms and get to it, watching the stage as it gets set-up and looking for anyone from the band.Even though we have no idea what they look like without the make-up.
Soon,we run out of chairs and the guy send us next door to the American Royal Livestock to get more. But he foregot about us and stood around for about an hour....He finally shows and says they got more chairs at the arena. We go finish that.
Once done,and unwatched, we made our way to the corridor closest to back-stage.We noticed a woman go into an open door that looked like it could be a dressing room.We walked over and looked inside....There she was,alone,with all the costumes on racks, getting the make-up tables ready...She heard us talking,turned and smiled.We asked if we could come in, but she said no....We stepped back into the corridor and in few seconds, she walks out with Gene's boot.We each take pictures with it and give it back.

Just then, the guy shows up and tells us we're done working and have to go back outside and come back in with the rest of the audience.We sign-out and get taken out the front doors into a waiting crowd of a couple hundred people.It's about an hour and a half before the doors open.

Seats weren't great,but the show was.

Edit:Uncropped photo...I don't know where the expression on my face came from.I've hated it since day one.Oh,well.

 

[KingKrabb]

To everyone who saw Pink Floyd: I hate you. haha